God is Not a Big Asshole

I've always had a real problem with idjits like Pat Robertson who ascribe disasters like Hurricane Katrina, the Tsunami, and 9/11 to God's wrath and anger at people. Besides not really fitting my concept of a loving and forgiving God, it begs the question about all the other awful and wonderful occurrences---does God do all that stuff too?

Then I read this post over at the Huffington Post, which really summed it all up quite nicely:
(Chris Durang, via The Huffington post)

I've been trying to figure out why God has been sending all those horrible grass fires to Texas. At first I thought it was because God dislikes George W. Bush, and so is punishing Texas.

But then in fairness, I realized that God's time is different than man's time, and it may be that God is having a delayed reaction to the governorship of Ann Richards, which means the grass fires are the Democrats' fault.

Or maybe God doesn't like Molly Ivins and is punishing Texas because of her. Maybe he's having a conniption fit about Brokeback Mountain. Of course, most of the sex scenes take place in Montana, while it's only Jake Gyllenhaal's pretend marriage that takes place in Texas. So if God was being more exact, He should send grass fires to Montana, not Texas. So maybe it is Molly Ivins.

Of course, Oklahoma is getting grass fires too. I'm not sure what God is saying through that gesture. Can it possibly be he disapproved of the Hugh Jackman British version of Oklahoma, and he thinks only Americans should do Oklahoma?

And why hasn't he sent grass fires (or a plague of toads) to the people of Dover, Pennsylvania, who voted out the school board who had insisted the topic of Intelligent Design be introduced in science class before evolution could be taught. And who also advised students to go to the library and read a book called Of Pandas and People, whose title certainly fascinates me. Though not quite enough to go get a copy.

Or maybe God doesn't micromanage the world the way I'm assuming.

It's worth reading the whole post, which is both humorous and poignant.